1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a method and device for managing the relative displacement of a cursor on a viewing device in relation to an image of which at least one part is displayed on this device.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Generally, it is known that man-processor communications increasingly use on-screen displaying of a cursor that the operator must displace in order to designate locations on the screen representative of data to be entered or even of functions to be performed.
Numerous solutions have therefore been proposed to enable the operator to control displacement of the cursor and to validate the locations designated by the latter.
However, the most widely used of these solutions at present, such as direction keys provided on the keyboard assigned to the processor, mice and trackballs, (or thumballs) are unsuitable or even prohibited in certain applications, notably in the case of dialogue terminals equipping the cockpits of aircraft.
Mouse operation requires a large flat horizontal surface which is incompatible with cockpit environments.
Trackballs, which use a sphere to be rotated by the operator's finger, are difficult tools to make tight and are therefore difficult to integrate in a cockpit. Moreover, they have proved to be somewhat unpractical and to lack precision.
The direction keys on the keyboard are not ergonomical and only enable cursor displacement according to four axes.
In order to obviate these drawbacks, proposals have also been made with regard to touch-sensitive work boards capable of detecting displacement of the operator's finger with a view to guiding the cursor displayed on the screen.
However, these touch-sensitive work boards, which perform very well, have the drawback of requiring a relatively sizeable operating space.